Although various drugs have been used as anticancer agents, many problems remain in terms of their applicability and side effects, etc. For this reason, there is a demand for the development of new drugs. Hocek et al. (Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun., Vol. 66, pp. 483-499 (2001)) have synthesized 6-arylpurine nucleoside derivatives, and have demonstrated that these derivatives have cell growth inhibitory activity on various cancer cell lines. Also, the inventors of the present invention have synthesized purine nucleosides having various heterocyclic rings as a substituent at the 6-position of the purine ring, and have analyzed these compounds for their anticancer effect (JP 2005-232079 A (Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-43377 filed on Feb. 19, 2004, which was not yet published at the priority date of the present application)).
To be useful as anticancer agents, it is highly desired that drugs have a property such that they act on cancer cells to inhibit their growth and/or function, while they do not have such activity on normal cells or such activity is weak on normal cells.
All documents cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Patent Document 1: JP 2005-232079 A (Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-43377, filed on Feb. 19, 2004)
Non-patent Document 1: M. Hocek, et al., Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun., Vol. 66, pp. 483-499 (2001)